Good news for Andrew Marr, who is returning to the Start the Week chair next Monday for a one-off about the poet George Herbert. Marr, who has not presented the show since his near-fatal stroke in January, was keen to host the programme because the religious poet was on his reading list while he recuperated.

Kit Malthouse is being talked about in Tory circles as the party’s next candidate for Mayor, if Boris Johnson sticks to his promise not to stand again and the party cannot persuade a bigger political beast into the fray.